About Us - Our Trip to Japan! Part 3 - Hiroshima, Miyajima, and Kitakyushu

Click to read Part 1 and Part 2!

Part 3: Hiroshima, Miyajima and Kitakyushu

Our next stop was Hiroshima. We visited the A-Bomb Dome and the Peace Museum.

Afterwards, we had Okonomiyaki for lunch - this was my favorite meal of the trip! Yum!

The next day was very rainy. We were in Japan during the rainy season, but this was the only day that the rain really ruined our plans. We ended up visiting a shopping arcade (covered shopping street) and trying out Karaoke! Fun!

The next day, before we headed to Tomoko's parents' house, we went to Miyajima. (This was what we had planned to do the day before.) This was probably the coolest place we visited. There are wild deer there that wander the streets and walk right up to you. There is also a famous Shinto shrine there.

For the last part of our trip, we stayed at Tomoko's parents' house. They drove us all over Kitakyushu and the surrounding area and welcomed us into their home. (Again, we offer a huge "Arigato"- Thank You!) We did lots of shopping and ate more wonderful food, including a conveyer belt sushi restaurant (cool!). We also spent one night in an Onsen (hot bath) hotel while we were in Kitakyushu, which was wonderful!

This was really the trip of a lifetime and we cannot thank our friend Tomoko and her parents enough for their help and hospitality!

After two weeks of traveling, we were ready to come home. Getting there was no easy task! Since our rail passes were expired, we took a domestic Japanese flight from Kitakyushu to Tokyo. Then we took a bus from there to a second Tokyo airport. After spending several hours waiting in the airport, we boarded our 13 hour flight to Atlanta. We had a layover there as well, and then flew home to Sarasota. By the time we actually got to our house, we had been traveling for 31 hours!  Phew!

Thanks for reading about our adventure! Stay tuned to our blog for more beach portrait sessions coming soon!

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About Us - Our Trip to Japan! Part 2 - Kyoto

If you haven't read Part 1 yet, click here.

Part 2: Kyoto

Kyoto is full of shrines, temples, and castles. It is also where many geisha live and work. We saw a real geisha right at the train station when we arrived! 

In Kyoto, we stayed at a traditional Japanese style hotel, where we slept in futon mats on the floor. (We also did this several other times over the course of our trip.) This picture shows the room before the beds were made up.

In Kyoto, we visited Arashiyama, which included a bamboo forest. 

We also visited Nijo Castle, which was right across the street from our hotel. This was a very large and beautiful area to explore.

There were some Japanese school groups visiting there that day. These middle school kids wanted their picture with Jason and Adam!

The next day, we visited a ninja and samurai theme park - fun!

We mostly used buses and taxis to get around Kyoto. Sometimes, the buses were incredibly crowded. (We  had experienced some really crowded subways in Tokyo, too.)

 Stay tuned for Part 3: Hiroshima, Miyajima, and Kitakyushu!

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About Us - Our Trip to Japan! Part 1 - Tokyo

Just over a month ago, we returned from an amazing two week adventure in Japan with our friends! We wanted to share some photos from our trip, all taken on the 16-35mm f/2.8 L II, our "go to" lens for travel. When we want (or in this case, need) to travel light in regards to our photo gear, we pick this lens because it is great at capturing everything around us when we're in a new place, plus it is a fairly light lens compared to most of the others we own.

We also want to take this opportunity to extend a big "Arigato" (Thank you) to our friend Tomoko and her parents. Tomoko is originally from Japan and did pretty much all of the planning for this trip. She was also our translator the entire time - thank goodness, since most people we encountered did not speak English! Tomoko's parents invited us to stay at their home for the last few days of our trip and were outstanding hosts - they drove us around to see the sights, fed us delicious food, and most importantly, gave us a glimpse of what life is really like in Japan.

Every place we went in Japan was very clean and the people were extremely polite. It was truly the trip of a lifetime - we saw so many different places, people, and things! It has been really, really hard to narrow down the photos from our trip... I'm going to do my best to chunk this and explain what things are as best I can!

Part 1: Tokyo

The flight to Tokyo from Atlanta was 13 hours long! After about 10 hours, your body can't stand to sit still any longer! It was brutal! Jason, Adam, and I flew together. Tomoko had already in been Japan with their daughter for several weeks, and wouldn't be arriving in Tokyo to meet us until a few days later.

When we arrived, we found the subway and train maps a little tricky, but with a little help via text message from Tomoko and some help from Google, we made it to our hotel in Asakusa. We walked around the area (there was a big Buddhist temple right behind our hotel, which was very cool) and got the first of many delicious meals (noodles!).

We also checked out the 7-11 across the street. 7-11 in Japan is completely different from 7-11 here. They sell all sorts of delicious prepared food items that you can eat for breakfast, lunch, or dinner (which we did several times over the course of our trip).

The next morning, we headed to Akihabara. (By this time we had figured out the subways a little bit better). The big attraction for Jason in Akihabara was Yodobashi Camera, a giant electronics store. It wasn't open yet when we arrived, so we got our first taste of fatty tuna (sushi) at a famous sushi chain nearby. Yum!

Inside the store (and inside just about every store we visited in Tokyo), it was unbelievable the amount of STUFF that there was to look at and buy!

Side note: Jason tested out Canon's 200mm f/2 lens (see the photo of me below that he took with it) and loved it. He's wanted this lens for a looooooong time! He bought a used one after we got home, which will be the subject of a future blog post!

 Speaking of "stuff," here's one of the weirdest looking food items we saw there:

Walking around Akihabara, and many other places in Japan, we saw tons of Gacha-pon machines and tons of vending machines. They were everywhere, and the variety of items in both types of machines was amazing!

The next day, we visited the Tsukiji Fish Market - wow! We had sushi breakfast there, too!

Afterwards, we headed to the Tokyo Skytree, the tallest tower in the world. We got a good view of how big Tokyo really is! Again, wow! 

Finally, later that day, our translators arrived! Phew! Tomoko took us to a Japanese barbecue restaurant where we cooked our food over hot coals in the center of the table.

The next night, while Tomoko visited family, Jason, Adam, and I went to "Robot Restaurant" in Shinjuku and saw one of the craziest shows anyone could ever imagine. (It would be impossible to explain!) 

The next day, we activated our 7 day rail passes and boarded the Shinkansen to Kyoto! Stay tuned for "Part 2" of our trip, coming up next on our blog!

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